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Malcolm Cohen
Dr. Malcolm Cohen is an aged Asonian human man with rather non-descript looks, greying hair, and hazel-brown eyes. He is a highly intelligent and driven man, consumed by the goal of improving mortal life; he is also bitingly sarcastic, organized to a fault, and addicted to stimulant drugs. Fond of shapeshifting, he has a habit of using magic to alter the appearance of his age to different points in his life to suit his current mood. Malcom was born to a librarian and his wife in Purcell; eventually, he moved to Losanti for schooling purposes. After becoming a fully licensed medical doctor, he managed to be accepted to the Academy of the Arcane for alchemical studies, a very small and exclusive program. He became infamous in 4824, when he was arrested for orchestrating what became known as the Rapture Incident. Since his arrest, he was found guilty of twenty one counts of murder, as well as conspiracy and creating and distributing Class 4 Alchemical Goods, and was sentenced to life in maximum security prison. Normally, his crimes would warrent execution, but the Asonian government kept him locked in solitary confinement in a secret prison under Arlington in order to continue to utilize his alchemical and medical mastery, despite the calls for his death. He remained imprisoned for three years until his jailbreak, which was orchestrated by the Riptide Gang. He remained hidden in the Underdark for several months in the Rapture complex until he was discovered and re-arrested. Dr. Cohen was imprisoned for another seven years until he was collected by Harlequin as one of the most powerful people in Arlington during the coming of the All, and so eventually found himself on the Gunakadeit with the others. As a stipulation of working with him, Caitlyn and Ryuji fashioned an unremovable collar using Harlequin's magic that makes him compliant to Cailtyn's demands as well as making him incapable of causing willful harm to others; all of this combined with the fact that Caitlyn destroyed the book containing his life's work had a rather noticeable impact on his personality and decision-making abilities. Dr. Cohen was ascended at Yggdrasil Isle; his particular power manifested as the abilities to cease aging and to ignore the need to eat, sleep or breathe. He threw his lot in with the group, dedicated to the world and its continued survival. Once the plane was safe, he was exiled from the continent by the High Council of Arcana, who wanted him gone but who also recognized the difficulty they would have in killing or restraining him. He complied, and kept a low profile for many years, allowing the council to think he eventually passed away from natural causes. However, his work was far from over: over the next century and a half, he used the knowledge and resources he had gathered over the time he had traveled to begin a new experiment, leading to the creation of the augmented humans of Columbia. He lives on the small island as a reclusive and almost revered figure, where he continues to study and invent new ways to improve Materians. Formative Years Sister: Margaery Ferric - Malcolm’s sister is two years his senior. She is married, and has two grown children, each with their own children. At one point she was a school teacher for local farm children, but she is now living out her retirement quietly with her husband in a small village west of Purcell. Parents: Thomas and Eliys Cohen Margaery and Malcolm were born to Thomas and Eliys in Purcell. The pair ran the library in town and were both quite learned from their love of reading, though not formally educated. Thomas was a particular and strict man, had a deep love of knowledge, and was rather protective of his wife, who was blind. Eliys was originally from Tsimshian, but was beset by a grave illness in her teenage years that prompted her family to send her south for better medical care. She spent many years in hospitals; when it was obvious that she would have to stay for a long time, she moved to Purcell, to at least be close to the ocean that she was familiar with. While eventually her health stabilized, she lost her eyesight. It was while she was here that she met Thomas, who volunteered in the hospital, visiting and reading to patients. The two became very fond of each other, and were eventually wed. Eliys stayed in Purcell with him, in case her health took another turn for the worse. They had two children, and enjoyed a comfortable life together. The family, while not wealthy, was not by any means poor. There was an unspoken gender divide in their household, where it was unarguably seen as Eliys’ job to mentor and attend to Margaery, while Malcolm was the purview of Thomas. Margaery was a pleasant child, rather quiet and caring, and these aspects were nurtured in her by her mother. Malcolm was very bright from a young age, but beset with a severe inability to concentrate. This was aggressively tackled by his father, who did not want his son’s potential ruined by a lack of focus. He was sent to a number of doctors across the country to cure him of his scattered disposition; this had numerous outcomes on the boy, including the concepts that his mind was broken, and that people could be ever fixed and improved upon. He was given an early familiarity and comfort with mind-altering drugs, and between his experiences and the fact that modern medicine was the only reason his mother survived the illness that took her sight, Malcolm became very interested in pharmacy. The addition of magic to increase the potency and success of drugs, or alchemy, was a natural progression in his mind. He went on to study both. Elyis had three siblings, who all lived in Tsimshian with their families. Malcolm and Margaery had six cousins, and visited Tsimshian once every year or two to see them. By now, they have numerous cousins once, twice and thrice removed in the city; they were never particularly close with this side of their family due to the distance, but they are all well-acquainted nonetheless. Thomas had one younger sibling: a sister who died in an accident when Malcolm was 14. A large house fire took her life, along with her husband and two of her three children. The third child, a boy by the name of Gregory, survived. Thomas refused to take him in for a few reasons, and he went to a local orphanage. Malcolm visited him on occasion, but they were never close, and it was awkward at the very best. Malcolm always had a tendency to be snarky and patronizing, though usually not ill-meaning, and valued school work over social interaction. This did little for his popularity, and as such he had few friends throughout his life: none were close, and those he did have were quickly lost when he moved. He travelled a fair bit during his studies, going from city to city as his research and program demanded. As his parents aged, he visited and helped when he could. Eliys passed away from health complications in her late 60s; Thomas’ health rapidly declined after her death. Since Malcolm could not devote all of his time to him, and Margeary lacked the skills to tend to his complicated health issues, he was institutionalized for a few years prior to his own death. Malcolm was arrested at age 52 for his role in the Rapture Incident. Both of his parents had passed away by this point. Margeary was horrified at the news, and effectively disowned her brother, opting not to see or speak to him in any way after the news broke.Category:Character